Posts tagged: animal photography

In the desert landscape of Indio, California, eight young men cast off their involvements within the Mexican gang system in hopes of forging non-violent lives as a brotherhood of tattoo artists. For Desert Ink, Australian photographer Jonathan May tells the story of the men of Art and Ink tattoo shop, weaving together a murky and enigmatical tale of loss and redemption.

If there’s one thing that photographers will never be able to control, it’s the weather. No matter how advanced cameras become or how much the industry changes course, Mother Nature will remain a constant, and she will always have the upper hand. When photographers are faced with unusual weather, they have two choices: to resign and go back home, or to embrace the unpredictability and power of our planet. This year, The Weather Channel’s annual It’s Amazing Out There Photo Contest celebrates those who have chosen the latter and gone on to make unforgettable images relating to the themes of nature, adventure, and the elements.

When rainfall quenches the bone-dry terrain of Southern Niger, says New York-based travel photographer Terri Gold, a thousand Wodaabe nomads, along with thousands of their treasured animals, converge across the desert in celebration of the The Guérewol Festival. As part of the weeklong event, the men dress in traditional finery, adorn their faces in paint, and perform for hours in hopes of winning the admiration of a set of young women judges. After braving the 110 degree heat in search of the merrymaking, Gold at last happened upon Guérewol after weeks of anticipation and captured the scene using infrared film.

For New York City-based photographer Magdalena Sole, visiting the Mississippi Delta for the first time was like returning to a home she never knew she missed. Since then, she has spent eighty four days and traversed over 10,000 miles of land between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, discovering happiness and heartache as they erupt in tandem across the Southern plains.

For Alaskan photographer Acacia Johnson, traversing the Far North signifies a homecoming, a return to the curiosity and awe she felt as a young child for the icy wilderness. For Polaris, named for the North Star, the photographer camps and hikes across Alaska and Iceland, chasing down the elusive threads of belonging that bind her to the inhospitable terrain.

El Fonoll, Tarragona, (Conca de Barberà), Catalonia, Spain. A woman with her daughter on holiday at El Fonoll’s naturist village.

Matavenero, Leon, Spain Matavenero, Leon, Spain. One of the houses of Matavenero.

The Northern Spanish landscape, report Italian photographers Diambra Mariani and Francesco Mion, is flecked with tiny, sequestered villages that have remained largely deserted for decades. While most of the rural population has since abandoned these bucolic corners of the country for buzzing cities, recent years have seen a rebirth; with the help of a few devoted and romantic souls, these forgotten bowers have been suffused with new life.

New South Wales-based photographer Matthew (Matty) Smith got his first taste of the sea during his boyhood, when his family went snorkeling in France and the Mediterranean. Since then, the thirst for the briny deep has only intensified, compelling him to all corners of the globe in search of the elusive creatures that linger just below the surface of the human realm. For Over/Under, Smith captures the very point in which the subaquatic meets the world above, cracking open his frame—and our planet— into two divergent realms.

There are few sights as miraculous as that of a baby animal learning the ropes from his mom- and in some cases, his dad. According to evolutionary biologists, humans are genetically hardwired to respond to infants, even when those little ones are of another species. We’re made to register cuteness, to feel an urge to protect and nurture small creatures, so it’s no wonder that photos of baby animals can inspire even the most curmudgeonly person to crack a smile.

For Where Hunting Dogs Rest, London-based photographer Martin Usborne tells the story of the Spanish greyhound, an ancient sighthound breed once revered and cherished by the Spanish nobility. As the winter months begin to settle and hare hunting season draws to a close, countless hunting dogs are abused and forsaken along roadsides, in car parks, and on the peripheries of town. Many do not survive, but the photographer encountered a lucky few, spent time with them, and captured their portraits, which he paired with somber landscapes taken at the location at which they were abandoned.

Santorini, Greece is world-renowned for its beautiful beaches, breathtaking scenery, ancient cities, and its location in the Aegean Sea. The most popular images of the island are of its whitewashed cubical houses that scatter its steep and rugged caldera, formed from an enormous volcanic eruption in the sixteenth-century. Greek photographer Petros Koublis reveals a different, more mysterious side to Santorini in Vedema: a fire harvests the stone. Koublis’s photographs capture the nature and origins of Santorini through the prism of Greek mythology. Koublis states, “The series investigates the traces of the island’s volcanic origin only to reach for something more personal and universal; our very own origin.”